The use of temporary bonding of wafers onto a carrier to allow processing of the wafer is well known. A challenge is the subsequent debonding of the wafer from the carrier. Different carriers have been described that allow debonding by means of a solvent. In such processes, the adhesive used for the temporary bonding is chemically dissolved.
US2009/197070A describes a support plate that bonds to a substrate so as to support the substrate. In the support plate, a plurality of openings penetrate through from a bonding surface to a non-bonding surface. The bonding surface faces the substrate, and the non-bonding surface faces the bonding surface. A porous region, which includes a first region and a second region surrounding the first region, is formed on the bonding surface; and the first region has an opening ratio greater than that of the second region. This way, it is possible to realize a support plate that can be easily peeled off from a semiconductor wafer with a solvent, but does not easily come off from a substrate during a processing operation on the semiconductor wafer.
US2005/0173064A1 provides a supporting plate that has a structure in which a solvent can be supplied to an adhesive layer between the supporting plate and a substrate—such as a semiconductor wafer—in a short period of time after the substrate is thinned. The document also discloses a method for stripping the supporting plate. The supporting plate may have a larger diameter than the semiconductor wafer, and penetrating holes are formed in the supporting plate. The outer peripheral portion of the supporting plate is a flat portion in which no penetrating hole is formed. When alcohol is poured from above the supporting plate, the alcohol reaches the adhesive layer through the penetrating holes, dissolves and removes the adhesive layer.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,882,096B2 discloses a perforated support plate for supporting a surface of a wafer by interposing an adhesive layer. The perforated support plate has penetration holes. Solvent to dissolve the adhesive with which the perforated support plate is adhered to a wafer penetrates through the perforations of the support plate. The perforated support plate comprises a reinforcing part for deflection prevention.
US2004/0231793A1 discloses the use of a porous sintered metal as temporary carrier for wafers. The carrier can be released by solvent passing through the thickness of the temporary carrier through its pores in order to dissolve the adhesive used to adhere the wafer to the temporary carrier.
US2009325467A describes a process wherein a wafer can be thinned without occurrence of dimples. A support plate has a number of through holes. A circuit forming surface of a wafer is adhered to one surface of the support plate by an adhesive member, and a dimple prevention member having a thickness of 100 μm or more and having an adhesive layer on one face is adhered to the other surface. Thus the openings at both ends of the through holes are blocked. The support plate is vacuum adsorbed to a support table through the dimple prevention member, and the wafer is ground/polished to thin the wafer. The dimple prevention member is stripped off, and a solvent is penetrated into the adhesive member through the through holes to detach the wafer from the support plate.
US2001005043A discloses a technique which performs the thinning of a wafer and the separation thereof from a support substrate with high yields and in a short time. A hole-free support substrate is bonded to a second surface of a support substrate having holes with an adhesive layer melted by heating so as to block the holes. A wafer is bonded to a first surface of the support substrate having the holes with an adhesive layer melted by solvent. The wafer is thinned by grinding and etching. The adhesive layer is melted by heating and the support substrate having the holes is slid with respect to the hole-free support substrate to thereby separate the support substrate having the holes from the hole-free support substrate. The adhesive layer is then dissolved by solvent through the holes defined in the support substrate having the holes. Thereby the wafer is separated from the support substrate having the holes. As no load is put on the wafer, wafer damage is prevented.